Life in the Hamato Family
by Karategurl13
Summary: Splinter always regretted the turtles never meeting their mother, but is that actually true?


I just came up with this while watching LIM.

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters below.

At first he thought nothing of it. He thought they were just coincidences, but now he could no longer ignore it. It all started with Mikey. Splinter had thought it was odd that the six year old was up at 1 am since the toddler usually slept like a log. The youngest turtle pulled out a piece of mutation day and poured, who Splinter assumed was himself, a glass of milk. The turtles would sometimes get up in the middle of the night for some milk, but never for a snack. And when Mikey grabbed his plate and left the lair, the rat was very concerned. A part of him wanted to let his son know he was watching him, but another part wanted to stay back and trail behind.

Once Michelangelo had a good a lead on him, Splinter followed his son. The mutant felt bad for leaving the rest of his sons unattended, but there was no way he was leaving his baby out here in the cold sewer alone. _Where in the world is he going? _he thought. He had never taken his sons to this part of the sewer.

After what seemed like hours, the soft padding of his son's feet stopped. Splinter peeked around the corner and saw Mikey sitting right under the manhole the rat used to go up into the city. The moonlight shined down on him through the holes. The milk and cake was placed a feet away from where his son was seated on the floor.

"I know it's late for sweets, but I thought you might want some."

The rat could've sworn that the wind swirling around the sewer walls sounded almost like whispering.

"Yeah that's what daddy says too."

Splinter smiled. Of course, his son had an imaginary friend. He should've put the pieces together since his son had the wildest imagination. The father looked back and saw Mikey rolling on the ground, clutching his sides. Tears of joy streamed down his face.

"Stop it! It tickles! Stop it!"

The scene was precious and Splinter almost didn't want to disturb it, but the temperature was dropping. Plus he didn't want an exhausted child in the morning.

"Michelangelo."

The orange clad turtle stopped and stared at his father, a blush spreading over his face. "Hehehe, hi daddy."

Splinter smirked and picked up his baby boy. He ran his finger up and down on his son's plastron. "Now what are you doing down here?"

"I came to visit my friend."

"Ah yes, your imaginary friend."

Mikey looked like he'd been slapped in the face. "No, she's real. ママ tell, daddy you're real." **(****ママ ****means mommy in Japanese.)**

Splinter froze. His sons always used that term when he showed them that strange canister on their birthday, but they never used it on any other day. The wind brushed passed his cheek and disappeared. His heart ached in his chest. That touch felt so familiar, but the rat refused to think anything of it.

"Come my son. I must get you to bed."

"But daddy…"

"No buts. It is late. You may talk to your friend again tomorrow."

"Ok." Mikey turned around in his father's grip and waved back to the air. "Bye ママ."

Hopefully this imaginary friend would go away soon.

TMNT

The second time was with Donatello. The prodigy turtle was helping his father collect parts for his lab. Splinter recently found a spare room in the lair and decided to turn it into a lab for his third eldest son. Saying the purple clad turtle was overjoyed would be an understatement.

"Daddy, do you think that I'll be able to find a computer down here?"

"Maybe my son, but if not I believe you will be able to build one. Your intelligence even proceeds mine."

The six year old smile and padded along side his father. A wagon full of metal items trailed behind him. As the two mutants reached the sewer waterfall, the red wagon wheel got caught on something. Donnie pouted and pulled on the metal container as hard as he could. The wheel finally got free, but the turtle ended up falling and rolling towards the water. Splinter threw his cane in the turtle's path. Donnie hit his head on it and fell shell first on the ground, arms spread wide.

"Donatello, are you alright?"

"Uhh… my head feels funny." The dizzy turtle rubbed his head and sat up. Something hard under his foot caught the turtle's attention. Donnie picked up the item. It was a book. "Engineering for Beginners."

"Sensei, sensei! Look what I found!" Donnie bounced up and down like Mikey on a sugar high. The rat had to put his hand on the turtle's head to keep him still for a few moments.

"That is wonderful my son."

The purple clad turtle started flipping through the book. It was in pretty good condition for being in a sewer. It barely had any water damage. A small stem was bookmarked in the middle of the book. The prodigy opened the page there and saw it was filled with computer designs and blueprints. Donnie felt like he had died and gone to genius heaven. While his son was busy looking at his new book, Splinter couldn't felt but notice the type of flower that was stuck in the book. It was a cherry blossom- Tang Shen's favorite flower. The rat's heart ached for the second time that week. Could it be…. no, it was just a coincidence.

"HTS."

"I'm sorry?"

"HTS. Those are the initials of the person who had this book before. I wonder why they just threw it out like this."

_HTS. Hamato Tang Shen. It couldn't be, could it? _A warm breeze passed over his cheek and forehead. His enhanced hearing picked up what he thought was laughter though it did not come from him or his son. This was female. Splinter's heart jumped into his throat. _It wasn't possible_.

"Daddy, are you ok? You look like you're gonna cry."

Splinter immediately wiped his face. "I am fine. Come Donatello. We must get home so you can read your new book."

TMNT

A part of Splinter didn't want to accept it. It was more for his heart's sake than anything else. He tried to reason his way out of it and he nearly succeeded. Then the incident with Leonardo and Raphael happened.

Splinter heaved as he tossed rocks and rubble behind him, careful not to hit his youngest sons who were more hysterical than he was. The boys were riding around the sewers on their skateboards when Raph and Leo got into a huge arguement. Names were exchanged, shoves were given, and Donnie and Mikey were left in the middle.

The two youngest Hamato brothers began walking back to the lair to get sensei when the ceiling above them began to crack. The two eldest managed to see this and pushed the younger ones out of the way before it could land on them. However it was Leo and Raph that ended up getting crushed. Now Splinter was trying to get his sons out as fast as he could before the unthinkable happened.

"Not my sons. Please not my sons."

After pulling more rubble out of the way, the rat heard crying. "My sons, help me."

The three mutants pulled away a piece of wood and saw something that would baffle even Donnie for years. The rubble weren't crushing his sons. In fact, the debris actually formed a sort of cave. There were two walls made of pieces of the ceiling on the sides of them. The rest of the rubble was lying over top of the sides like a roof. Inside Raph and Leo were hugging each other for dear life. The two turtles looked out into the self made doorway and ran to their father. There was no.. it wasn't possible. His sons weren't harmed. In fact, they didn't even have a scratch on them. The rat was dumbfounded.

Donnie and Mikey hugged their brothers and refused to let go. The two were hysterical, but the older boys rocked them back and forth and started to hum to them. Splinter's eye went wide at the tune. It was the same tune he had sung with Tang Shen to Miwa.

"My sons… where did you learn that?" The rat was more than positive that he had never sung that to them before. It was too painful.

"That nice lady taught us," Leo said.

"What nice lady?"

It was Raph's turn to talk. "The one that saved us from the rubble. She sung to us while you were digging us out."

"Yeah, she said we were brave little warriors, just like you."

Splinter felt his throat close up and fell to his knees. The boys ran to their father and hugged him. "It's ok daddy. We're here now."

And at that moment he could no longer deny it. Tang Shen was here somehow. His father had told him stories of spirits with unfinished business coming to visit their families, but he never thought…

The warm breeze was back again, but this time it wrapped around him and his sons. It pushed them closer together. And just as if to prove it to him, a small cherry blossom was carried by the wind into his lap.

Hamato Yoshi no longer needed anymore convincing. His wife was still here with him, protecting and comforting his sons. Giving them the mother figure he could never be. Splinter smiled and brushed the leaves of the cherry blossom.

_Just as persistent as I remember._

And Splinter could swear that he heard a female's laughter surrounding him.

**People say that young children can see ghosts and try to make contact with them. All events in this story are based off of true life events. Please review! =)**


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